LOST PLANET
BY: Rin Evangel
CHAPTER 1: FROZEN WASTELAND
I was born here on this icy hell we call a planet, and I've felt the stingy cold since birth. I was looking out over the frozen wasteland; it used to be a highway network before it was almost completely buried underneath the snow. Some of the highways still remain above the snow, but altogether it was nothing more than an uninhabitable dump. Apparently there is a large akrid in this area that prevented Nevec from setting up shop here, and since their own solders weren't readily trained to combat large akrid, they hired me to take care of it for them. They named it after some mythical creature called the kraken.
I was walking through the area hoping to pick up any signs of the kraken moving through the snow on my sonar, but I wasn't getting even the slightest reading. With the sonar turning up blank I decided to head up to the central tower so I could get a birds-eye-view of the area. The central tower use to control traffic back when the highway was still in commission it also had sensors to monitor akrid activity in the area. I was hoping that maybe I could get it to work and find this thing.
As I was walking towards the tower I felt and herd a rumbling coming from beneath the ground. I readied my plasma gun and was scanning my surroundings. I felt the rumbling pass beneath me and then it was silent. I turned and saw the kraken closing in at me from a distance. I aimed and shot a few rounds at it with my plasma gun. Each plasma burst I shot at it hit its mark, and I could see its flesh searing and charring from the distance. Even with all those shots the kraken never faulted in its charge. There was no way I was going to stop it with my little plasma rifle. I reached into my pack and pulled out a gum grenade rotated the ring and dropped on the ground at my feet, and started to run in the other direction, but before I could even get 10 meters away the kraken steamed-rolled over the gum grenade causing it to explode. The resulting explosion blew me several meters into a snow mound, it was one of the few benefit of living on a snow covered planet.
My body was sore after being blasted 15 meters of into the distance, and then Karen rode up on a hill on her snow bike.
"Are you okay Claizen" Karen asked
"What do you think" I replied in pain "don't come down yet I highly doubt that little explosion killed it". Having said that I stood up and started to walk towards the blanket of smoked cause by the grenade. As I moved closer to I felt the feeling that that something bad was going to happen, and the first step into the smoke would prove it right. As soon as I stepped into the smoke the Kraken's tentacle sprouted up from the snow and warped its self around my ankle. I looked down in an attempt to shot but before I could even lower my rifle it dragged me off.
The kraken was dragging me across the icy wasteland at a dangerous speed. I attempted to reach my plasma rifle but it was dangling too far behind me. Knowing that I couldn't reach my plasma rifle I unfastened my assault rifle from my vest and aimed it at the tentacle that held my leg. It was hard to get a good shot but I took my chances and let off a whole mag into it. It let go and receded back into the snow. The momentum I gained from it puling me didn't die so easily and I rolled several meters before finally stopping.
At this point I was exhausted and did not want to get up, but I didn't want to die either so I sucked it up, worked through the pain and got up. I reloaded my assault rifle and started to listen out for the kraken. I felt the loud rumbling from beneath my feet again. I turned around and saw the kraken in all its furry rise up from the snow and letting out a huge roar that shocked the ground. It smacked me away with one of its tentacle's send me flying about 15 meters. It hit me so hard that I dropped my assault rifle. It took me a few seconds to get up, and when I did I reached into my pouch and pulled out a disk grenade.
I set the timer for the grenade to go off in 10 seconds and threw it at the kraken. The grenade glided smoothly and embedded its self inside the krakens body. I aimed my plasma gun at the grenade in an attempt to manually detonate it by shooting it. I tried to aim but the kraken attacked making it a hard target. I started to run backwards while trying to blind fire a shot at the grenade. It took a few bursts but I finally hit it. The explosion was so massive that the sound of the blast nearly ruptured my ear drums.
Following the explosion the kraken fell to the ground causing a small tremor on impact. I walked towards it to look at the extent of the damage. The kraken's skin was burnt all over and the smell of burning flesh filled the air. As I walking around towards the head of the beast, one of its tentacles grabbed my ankle and hoisted me several feet in the air. Out of pure reflexes I reached in to my pouch pulled out another gum grenade, rotated the ring and slapped it onto the tentacle. Just a split second after I realized what I did. Panicking I pulled out my pistol and let of a mag in to the tentacle, but even with all that it wouldn't let go. As a last resort I pulled out my k-bar knife and stabbed it. After screwing it finally let go and I fell to the ground, and no more than 3 seconds later the grenade blew up and the tentacle vanished in a puff of black smoke.
The blood from the kraken's newly decapitated tentacle rain down onto the snow and I included. To make matters worse the 4 of the nine remaining tentacles rose into the air above me. I paused for a moment then the first slammed down in an attempt to hit me I rolled out of the way to avoid to and the tentacle miss and hit the ground, but it struck with such great force that caused a small tremor that echoed perhaps miles into the snow. My relief of avoiding it was short lived as the other three came slamming down to crush me as well. I kept rolling to avoid being crushed. With each that hit the ground a small tremor echoed each more powerful than the last. After the third one miss I got up and through a thermal grenade at the kraken. The explosion was a fiery infernal, and the kraken was engulfed behind a wall of fire.
The blaze died down quickly and the kraken layer out on the wasteland. All the fear that that it struck in people was gone and its roars were that to be pitied. I approached it; its flesh was charred and burned from the thermal grenade. I walk around towards its mouth, and even though it was on the verge of dying it still desperately tried to kill me. Out of nowhere the beast summoned up the last of its strength and lunged at me. I took me last grenade out of my pouch and tossed it into its mouth. The explosion was quick and subtle, the kraken, the great beast of the frozen wasteland had been killed. Its body flash froze in its lunging stance, and its thermal energy deposit left in its frozen corpse.
I signal Karen that it was all clear. She grabbed her gear and came down from atop a hill. She started to harvest the thermal from the kraken's body. It was going to take a while to get all but the longer the better. After all I been through I needed a long well deserved rest.